12 quotes
A Warning About Consequences and Respect
Harry Callahan
Listen, punk. To me, you're nothin but dogshit, you understand? And a lot of things can happen to dogshit. It can be scraped up with a shovel off the ground. It can dry up and blow away in the wind. Or it can be stepped on and squashed. So take my advice and be careful where the dog shits ya!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Dirty Harry Returns in Sudden Impact
Taglines
Dirty Harry is at it again.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Confronting Urban Crime and Corruption
Burly Detective
What do ya think, a gang hit, screwed-up drug score, unlucky John, or an unhappy love affair? Huh? Don't tell me this shit's gettin to ya. Not Harry Callahan. Say it ain't so.
Harry Callahan
No, this stuff isn't gettin to me. The knifings, the beatings, old ladies being bashed in the head for their Social Security checks, teachers being thrown out of a fourth-floor window because they don't give a shit. That doesn't bother me a bit.
Burly Detective
Come on, Harry. Take it easy.
Harry Callahan
Or this job, either. Having to wade through the scum of this city, being swept away by bigger and bigger waves of corruption, apathy and red tape. Nah, that doesn't bother me. But you know what does bother me?
Burly Detective
What?
Harry Callahan
You know what makes me really sick to my stomach?
Burly Detective
What?
Harry Callahan
Is watching you stuff your face with those hot dogs. Nobody, I mean NOBODY puts ketchup on a hot dog.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Perceptions of Law Enforcement and Authority
Jennifer Spencer
I saw the commotion the other day; you're either a cop or public enemy number one.
Harry Callahan
Heh. Some people might say both.
Jennifer Spencer
Really, who?
Harry Callahan
Oh, bozos with big brass nameplates on their desk and asses the shape of the seat of their chairs.
Jennifer Spencer
Why?
Harry Callahan
Ah, it's a question of methods. Everybody wants results but nobody wants to do what they have to do to get them done.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Discussion on Firearms and Evidence Handling
Harry Callahan
Not bad.
Horace King
Not bad, my ass! You've got to strain the remains for the fingerprints.
Harry Callahan
Well, this is the .44 Magnum Auto-Mag and it hold a 300-grain cartridge. And, if properly used, it can remove the fingerprints.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Killer in Pursuit of Justice
Taglines
Two killers are at large. One of them is Dirty Harry.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Justice and Rights in a Complicated Situation
Jennifer Spencer
So what now?
Harry Callahan
Now, I guess I'll have to...
Jennifer Spencer
Read me my rights? And where was all this concern for my rights when I was being beaten and mauled? And where were my sister's rights when she was being brutalized? There is a thing called justice, Callahan, and is it justice that they should all just walk away?
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Unexpected Coffee Order Sparks Tension
Crook
What's you doing, you pighead sucka?
[during a diner robbery]
Harry Callahan
Every day for the past ten years, Loretta there's been giving me a large black coffee; today she gives me a large black coffee, only it has sugar in it. A lotta sugar. I just came back to complain. Now, you boys put those guns down.
Crook
Say what?
Harry Callahan
Whoa...we're not just gonna let you walk out of here.
Crook
Who's "we", sucka?
Harry Callahan
{{W|Smith & Wesson Model 29|Smith...and Wesson}}...and me.
[puts his coffee on the table]
Harry Callahan
{{W|Go ahead, make my day}}!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Confrontation and Provocation in Sudden Impact
Ray Parkins
Give me what you got, twat-lips, before I give your face its first period.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Father's Guilt and Redemption
Chief Jannings
He couldn't live with it. The other vermin didn't care. But him, the guilt ate at his gut like an acid. He wanted you to come back. He would pray every night that you'd come back. Until one night he couldn't wait any longer. Took his car out and smashed it and his brains into a retaining wall. Now you're here, and he doesn't even know it. My fault. I should have let him be punished then, along with the other filth. But he was my only son. his mother died giving birth to him. He and I are all each other have. I was afraid for him. Afraid for me. See, I was a public figure. So I did things. I fixed it. And now I just want you to go. Let it end.
Jennifer Spencer
There's one left.
Chief Jannings
Yes. And I've got him, in my jail. He preyed on Alby and preyed on me ever since. And that too is going to end.
Mick
Oh is that so, Lester boy?
[surprising them]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Emergency Call for Assistance
Harry Callahan
Do you know the emergency phone number for San Francisco General? Well, why don't you call them right now and have them send down an ambulance. Tell them there's two sorry-looking assholes here with multiple contusions and various abrasions and broken bones.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Confrontation Over Police Conduct and Homicide Investigation
Captain Briggs
In more than 30 years of police work, this is the single, most OUTRAGEOUS transgression of authority I ever heard about. What the HELL did you think you were doing?
[shouting]
Harry Callahan
My job.
Captain Briggs
Is it your job, to harass and incite an old man into a heart attack?
Harry Callahan
My job is to investigate homicide. That old man happens to be one of the biggest crime lords on the west coast. How the hell was I supposed to know he was gonna vapor-lock?
Captain Briggs
But you hoped he would?
Harry Callahan
The Doker case is mine. It was at a standstill. I was just trying to break it loose.
Captain Briggs
Sure, with threats and intimidation!
Harry Callahan
Any way possible!
Captain Briggs
Are you aware that you have destroyed MONTHS - of intelligence & surveillance work? We're talking thousands of dollar, hundreds of man-hours? Special investigations has been BUSTING ITS ASS preparing a case against Threlkis.
Harry Callahan
He would have just snaked his way out of it. Maybe we saved the taxpayers a little money.
Captain Briggs
I ought to bust your ass down to traffic. Or better yet, kick it off the force! You're a dinosaur, Callahan. Your ideas don't fit today.
Harry Callahan
Just what ideas are these? That murder's a crime? That it should be punished?
Captain Briggs
Hey, don't you lecture me, you son-of-a-bitch. You know who you're talking to, huh? You know MY record?
[sneering]
Harry Callahan
Yeah. You're a legend in your own mind!
Captain Briggs
Goddamn you, Callahan!
Lt. Donnelly
Commissioner, now I...
Police Commissioner
Please, Lieutenant! The press will have a field day with this latest escapade. There may be further civil & legal repercussions. As a matter of fact there may even be attempts at retaliation. I think it would be wise if the inspector took some time off.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.